Danish journalist Jacob Riis famously said

“Look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before”.

I've found the same to be true in marketing.

It's all too easy to look at other people's success and attribute it to the “last blow”. But the truth is their success came from the previous 100 times they struck the rock.

Massive success in marketing rarely comes from massive action. It comes from the accumulation of good things done over time.

Relationships are built over time. Skill is built over time. Reputations are built over time.

You wouldn't take up running and expect to run a marathon in under 4 hours in your first week. Or to lose 2 stone in your first week of dieting.

But in marketing we keep looking out for that magic technique that will double our sales overnight.

And, of course, there's no shortage of people willing to sell us that silver bullet.

It's far, far better to look at your marketing like anything else you want to succeed at. 

Recognise it's going to take time. And you're going to have to work at it every day, improving bit by bit.

Maybe you'll get lucky and have a breakthrough.

But don't expect it.

And don't give up if you don't get one.

Just keep getting better and better day by day.

And finally you'll make your 101st blow and see a big impact from all that work.